``Early indications are that the UCK (the KLA) has complied'' with its promise to gather all its fighters in assembly areas across Kosovo by the deadline of Monday midnight, a KFOR spokesman said yesterday.

``The general impression is that everything went according to plan,'' the spokesman said, adding that ``we are still gathering information'' on the activity and details and numbers would be released later in the day.

KLA fighters, most in their uniform of camouflage, were seen arriving in the designated compounds in buses and vans during yesterday. British soldiers and KLA commanders were directing the flow of men, almost all of whom were unarmed.

Under the terms of an undertaking signed a week ago by the KLA and received by KFOR on the day after the complete withdrawal of Serbforces from Kosovo, the ethnic Albanian rebel organisation pledged to bring all its men into the assembly areas and observe strict conditions on the carrying of weapons and the wearing of uniforms.

From Tuesday onwards, KLA uniforms and insignias are banned outside of the assembly areas, and KLA members are forbidden from holding any sort of weapon in population centres.